Maxime Chanot, longtime New York City FC and current Los Angeles FC defender, is engaged in a war of words with Luxembourg head coach Luc Holtz and appears to be done playing for the national team.
Chanot made 71 appearances for Luxembourg since making his international debut in 2013, but a beef emerged between the 34-year-old center-back and the coach over Chanot's omission from the squad for a pair of October UEFA Nations League matches.
According to a report from Luxembourgian newspaper Tageblatt, head coach Holtz claims that Chanot refused to accept he'd be on the bench for the team's UEFA Nations League match against Bulgaria on October 12, but that "at the player's request," it was said publicly that Chanot was out due to a knee injury.
Chanot has spoken out refuting Holtz's story, saying in part in a statement published by Tageblatt that "My knee injury was the only reason why I had to leave the national team." Chanot also strongly criticizes Holtz, quoted by Tageblatt as saying "The real problem lies in the lack of communication and the amateurism with which Luc Holtz leads our selection."
Chanot holt zur Gegenattacke aus: „Das eigentliche Problem liegt am Dilettantismus, mit dem Luc Holtz unsere Auswahl führt“.https://t.co/tzPptAqQkG
— Tageblatt (@tageblatt_lu) November 8, 2024
Post translates: "Chanot counterattacks: 'The real problem lies in the amateurism with which Luc Holtz leads our selection.'"
This feud between Chanot and his national team coach appears to have come to a head with the news this week that Chanot was absent from the Luxembourg squad selected by Holtz for the next pair of UEFA Nations League games, home matches against Bulgaria and Northern Ireland scheduled for November 15 and November 18.
Holtz did not mince his words about Chanot and the player's future with Luxembourg, telling the press in part, "He was with us for eleven years, I thank you for this time. But a line was crossed and that's why I decided that this chapter is closed."
That sounds like a coach who will not be welcoming Chanot back into the national team fold for as long as he's in charge. It's been a rough start to the UEFA Nations League campaign for Luxembourg under Holtz, with the team sitting at the very bottom of its group with zero wins from four matches played.
The Chanot-Holtz battle now marks the second time this year that Chanot has found himself at odds, very publicly, with one of his teams.
In March, AC Ajaccio of France's Ligue 2 blasted Chanot by way of a strongly-worded statement that accused the defender of "not honoring his commitments," with the team alleging Chanot's commitment to the team deteriorated when Ajaccio wouldn't agree to his request to terminate his contract.
Andrew Leigh
Lest we forget, it wasn't just Ajaccio that severed ties with Maxime Chanot somewhat abruptly. You might remember the surprising nature of his 2023 exit from New York City FC, an unexpected late-season move made with Chanot sitting on 199 appearances in all competitions for the club across eight seasons.
His August 2023 departure from New York City was initially spun as a chance for him to get one last chance to go play professionally while being close to home in France, but Chanot also memorably made social media allusions to issues with head coach Nick Cushing's leadership shortly after making the move to Ajaccio.
In an interview with Hudson River Blue conducted in January, Chanot spoke positively of NYCFC and all the club did for him even as he was leaving it for Ajaccio – but Chanot never mentioned nor praised Cushing, despite calling out every other head coach he played under during his eight seasons in New York.
NYCFC, Ajaccio, and now Luxembourg have all parted with Chanot's services in the last 16 months, but he is still plugging away in Major League Soccer with LAFC, his landing spot after leaving Ajaccio.
Chanot has made 35 appearances across all competitions while starting the bulk of LAFC's matches during their tournament run to win the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, the 34-year-old's third trophy lifted on U.S. soil.
In that interview with HRB in January, Chanot said he wanted to keep playing professionally until he was either 37 or 38 years old. He's got a contract with LAFC that runs through 2025, his performances this season have shown he's still up to the task of playing center-back in MLS at age 34, and this feud with Luxembourg's coach appears to have taken national team call-ups off the table.
It's been a tumultuous year-and-change for a legend of New York City FC's cup-winning teams, who now appears to exclusively be an MLS player, forced to call time on an international career that included dozens of appearances in World Cup and UEFA European Championship qualifiers.
Andrew Leigh
